


Reaching for the Stars

by tptigger



Category: The Tomorrow People (2013)
Genre: Background characters - Freeform, Gen, Glitter, Stephen didn't think things through, glitter gets into everything, no one knows what to do with a 12 year old
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-10
Updated: 2014-05-10
Packaged: 2018-01-24 06:56:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1595729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptigger/pseuds/tptigger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Lair wasn't really set up for a 12 year old--Stephen is the first to notice, but maybe buying Charlotte glitter wasn't the best of ideas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reaching for the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to ladyslvr for the beta. This story is written for the Cotton Candy Bingo prompt Glitter/Sparkles.

Stephen teleported into the lair with a full grocery bag over his shoulder and a self-satisfied smile on his face.

Cara raised an eyebrow of question at him, but Stephen just nodded at her in acknowledgment and headed for the sofa where Charlotte was playing what had to be her hundredth game of Mario Kart that morning.

"Hey, Charlotte," Stephen said.

Charlotte paused the game and turned around, her eyes widening and a smile stretching across her mouth. "Hi, Stephen."

"Gotcha something." Stephen grinned even wider. He opened the bag and spread the contents out next to her on the couch.

Charlotte's eyes grew wide as she took in the pack of construction paper, box of markers, glue, package of stickers, and two vials of glitter with an extra package of shiny confetti.

Charlotte threw her arms around Stephen's shoulders. "Thank you!"

"The art supplies are yours, but these belong to New York Public Library, so I'll need them back in three weeks." Stephen pulled out the first two Percy Jackson books.

"You're the best!" Charlotte squealed, nearly bowling Stephen over with a second hug. "Thank you!"

"Ow, watch the pitch, kid, you're hurting my ears," Russell said as he limped by. "Or I won't steal you a new video game as soon as I'm better."

"Sorry, Russell," Charlotte said, hanging her head.

She looked from the art supplies to Russell, eyes narrowing in thought.

"Go for it, kiddo," Stephen said quietly. He got up, ruffling her hair as he went. Charlotte gathered up the art supplies and staked out a spot at one of the tables.

Russell rolled his eyes and picked up the controller, intent on finishing her game of Mario Kart.

"Glitter, Stephen?" Cara asked as he headed her way.

"According to Luca, as of four years ago, twelve year old girls love the stuff," Stephen said. "And we're not exactly stocked up for things to do for someone her age. One video game is all John would let her play?"

"Most of the others are Grand Theft Auto clones," Cara said. "You asked Luca?"

"I figured he was a better source than the guys not making enough money to live on at the dollar store."

Cara chuckled. "Good point."

Charlotte, meanwhile, had opened the construction paper and was in the process of unwrapping the glue.

Morgan looked up from the newspaper section that she was reading. "Charlotte, honey, are you going to use the glitter?"

"Yes."

Morgan reached down and picked up some of the newspaper that was sitting, finished, at her feet. "Put this on the table first, or we'll be picking glitter out of our dinner for weeks."

"Okay." Charlotte moved her art supplies and spread out the newspaper. "Thank you."

"At least someone around here thought things through," Cara said.

Stephen glared at her. "This poor kid was dying of boredom, I found her some stuff to do. I'm supposed to think of everything?"

Cara glanced over, watching Charlotte carefully layout out a pattern with the glue, tongue peeking out from between her lips, eyes fully focused. "We're going to have to find more structure for her, aren't we?"

Stephen nodded. "Let me know if you need more stuff from the library."

* * *

Several hours later, Russell woke up to find a piece of folded, orange construction paper laying on his chest.

"Get well soon" was written in rainbow glitter on the front. He smiled, opening the card, even though he knew it had to be from Charlotte.

He closed the card and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, yawning.

"Hey, Russell, wake up," Irene bounded towards the couch. "Dinner's about ready." She got close enough to see his eyes were open and then burst out laughing.

"What?"

"You have glitter all over your face."

"Stephen just had to go and buy Charlotte glitter, didn't he?" Russell pushed himself up off of the couch, lost his balance and landed heavily on the floor. Glitter cascaded from his face, causing the floor to sparkle. Russell was glad that it would be hard for Irene to see that he was blushing.

"Would it help if I told you she was smiling when she finished that?" Irene tried to wipe the smirk off of her face, then started giggling again.

"Marginally." Russell headed for the locker room to wash the glitter off of his face.

* * *

Charlotte tiptoed into the control room, eying the back of Cara's head where she was working at one of TIM's monitors.

John looked up from where he was resting on the couch, managing a smile in spite of the aching bullet wound. "Hey, kiddo. I'm awake. C'mere." He levered himself up to sitting, and held his arms open invitingly.

"Gently," Cara reminded her without looking up from whatever she was doing.

Charlotte wrapped her arms around John, careful to not jostle his injured stomach. After a minute, she pulled away. "I made you something." She handed him the folded piece of construction paper.

John smiled at the green background, the words "Get Well Soon" written in rainbow glitter on the front. There were shiny, metallic stars mixed in and glued alongside drawings of more stars and planets. He looked up to see Charlotte biting her lip.

John patted the seat next to him. "What's wrong? Are you nervous? I love it!"

"Irene said it wasn't accurate."

John frowned. "If she does that again, just tell her you're not drawing our solar system."

"Maybe that's where the refuge should be," Charlotte said.

"Another solar system?" Cara asked, leaving the computer and sitting on Charlotte's other side. "How would we get there?"

"A spaceship journey of that distance would take longer than the average human life span," TIM said.

"Shush, TIM," John said.

"That's why we find a way to increase our teleporting range," Charlotte said.

"Really?" Cara asked.

"It is theoretically possible to..."

"Shush, TIM," John said, making a mental note to have a chat with the AI about when to interject. "Let Charlotte talk."

"And then we could leave the Earth and ULTRA wouldn't have the technology to follow so we'd be safe, and if we were really lucky we might be able to transport the nice humans-- like Astrid and Stephen's family."

"That..."

"TIM, this is Charlotte's dream refuge. Please don't pick it apart," Cara said. She motioned for Charlotte to continue.

"And the only people there who could kill wouldn't because they'd be nice and no one would have to take anyone's powers away because we'd all work together and take care of each other and we could get to start over."

John smoothed a stray tuft of hair from out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. "I think if you want to get started on that, you'd better start letting Irene teach you math."

Charlotte put a hand on her hip. "No way! She doesn't explain things right: she skips steps. I get that she's supposed to be some kind of genius, but I'm not, and then she gets mad at me for not knowing any algebra. Excuse me for missing six years of school while I was in the Citadel!"

"Did you learn any math at school?" John asked.

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Addition and subtraction and word problems. I was only in first grade! Errol taught me multiplication and division, sometimes, in the Citadel, but not algebra."

"I'll have a chat with Irene," Cara said.

"Russell said he'd teach me when he's feeling better--at least up to Calculus. I don't think Irene will get as impatient once I know that."

"I'll still talk to her," Cara said. "You need to learn science too, and Russell's idea of chemistry is making things explode in the microwave."

Charlotte's face lit up.

"No blowing things up, Charlotte." John ran his fingers through her hair.

"What if they belong to ULTRA?" Charlotte asked.

"OK, but not until you're at least 25," Cara said.

"Stephen's 18," Charlotte said.

"Stephen's the exception to a lot of rules," John said. "And we have Stephen, so you're not allowed anywhere near ULTRA until you know how to defend yourself."

"I did pretty good against Julian and his thugs," Charlotte said.

"Yes, you did very _well_ against them, but they're a far cry from ULTRA agents," John said.

"And ULTRA agents aren't all telepaths," Cara added.

Charlotte frowned, burying her face in the crook of John's arm.

John kissed the top of her head. "Don't worry, we'll be here to look out for you while we teach you how to look after yourself."

Morgan knocked on the door. "Hey, Charlotte, reading time."

"Good, she needs to work on her grammar as well," TIM put in.

"TIM." Cara covered her eyes and shook her head.

"Coming," Charlotte said.

Morgan ran her fingers over Charlotte's hair, frowning. "Honey, how did you get glitter in your hair while you were making John's card?" She put a hand on Charlotte's shoulder and led her out of the room. "Let's go get you cleaned up."

John looked down at his hands, which were covered in glitter. "Oops."

Cara laughed. "The next time Stephen comes, I'll ask him not to buy her any more glitter."

"Maybe he could get her some of those glow in the dark stars that stick on the ceiling instead," John suggested.

"Those sound perfect for her," Cara said.

The End


End file.
